“ Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ” – Paulo Freire, Educator

Bring the public option back!

Here's the message we sent to our members. After you've read it, please add your voice.

Greedy insurance companies want to cut access to healthcare–but we won’t give into their bullying!

We are demanding a public health insurance option. Will you add your voice?

Dear Friend,

Healthcare should be a basic human right, but greedy health insurance corporations, like Aetna, are trying to destroy efforts to provide access to public health insurance.

According to these corporations and their lobbyists, if you’re poor, older, have prior health challenges, or other conditions, you’re out. See, they think you don’t make health care corporations enough money, so they believe you don’t deserve healthcare.1

Nearly 10 million Latinx people remain uninsured. And our communities are particularly harmed by companies pulling out of Obamacare and leaving us with no health insurance providers.2

We need a public health insurance option that can compete with the insurance companies, guaranteeing everyone affordable health care. A public option is a single federal insurance system that would compete with private insurance companies.3 A public option tells Congress that our health should be prioritized over corporate profit.

Insurance companies successfully fought tooth and nail to remove the public option from Obamacare in 2009.4But fortunately, there is a renewed urgency to make it happen today.

Progressive organizations and dozens of U.S. Senators are rallying around a congressional resolution for a public health insurance option.5We must make our voices heard now, making public health insurance central to the 2016 debate and passing it under the next president. As it stands, Donald Trump’s health care proposal would leave 18 million uninsured.6 In contrast, Hillary Clinton supports a public option.7 And so does President Obama.8 The next few days are key to creating political momentum, and visible support from enough people will get others to sign on.'

By pulling out of 11 state exchanges, Aetna and other insurance companies were bullying the Justice Department for failing to approve a merger with another big insurance company.9

In typical bully fashion, companies like Humana and UnitedHealth are also pulling out of various state exchanges, because even though they’re making money with Obamacare, they want even higher profits.10By 2017, people in some states will only have one insurance company they can choose through Obamacare. One county in Arizona, a state with one of the highest Latinx populations, already lacks any insurance companies whatsoever for all those in need through the Obamacare.11

Our health should not be dependent on the greed of the insurance companies. We can create an affordable alternative—the public option. This is the moment to strike and put the public option back on the national agenda. Please sign on as a supporter today.